Renee and Todd’s ketogenic adventure

Like most couples who work (Todd’s an engineer. Renee works evenings as a pediatric nurse) and being parents to a toddler, they must strike a balance between work and family life without neglecting their health. That takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

Renee’s tried other diets with a degree of success. However keeping the weight off proved more challenging since she had her child. So Todd and Renee did their own research and decided to give ketogenic eating a try.

For Renee, just trying ketogenic eating has proven difficult. She, like millions of us, grew up being told eating fatty food will lead to heart disease and other health problems. It seems to make sense that cutting out fat would help shed the fat from our bodies. Only it’s been several decades of fat-free diets… well if you’ve tried them and you’re reading this now, you know effective those diets have been.

Now the medical community is starting to change its tune. They’ve used ketogenic to treat epilepsy. Now, just think of this: when you eat fatty, satiating foods, how quickly do you become hungry again? When you eat less overall, wouldn’t you lose weight?

So here’s a simple meal suggestion I came up for Renee and Todd. It’s not very stringent and asks them both to be a bit creative.

MORNING

My friend Renee’s a coffee drinker who prefers to mask the bitter notes in coffee with cream and sugar. Instead of sugar, she will try honey, 1/4 teaspoon at a time. She will also add heavy cream to her coffee to help her feel fuller, faster. She will also try bulletproof coffee.

For Todd’s morning, if he has time, here are two shakes he can try as a healthy and delicious breakfast:

Blend well in a regular blender. If the shake is too thin, add 1/4 of a frozen banana but there’s sugar in bananas so take care not to use too much.

2.) Recipe for Berry/Vanilla shake:

8oz (1 cup) Heavy Whipping Cream (replace some or all with milk if you prefer)
1 cup walnuts (lots of good fats & vitamins in this)
1 Big Scoop Vanilla Protein (keep this less than 25g)
1 cup frozen berries (try mixed blueberries, or even peaches, but be mindful of their sugar content)
1-3 Tbsp MCT Oil (start @ 1, work your way up)

Blend well. Again, add 1/4 of a frozen banana to thicken the shake.

Mid-day

What happens when Renee craves something between meals? Her work as a nurse means her schedule is hectic, and she’ll eat when she can. One solution I recommend for her is the phat fudge. I showed her the whole process from making the almond butter to pouring the finished concoction into ice trays. It took 30 minutes.

Ingredients for phat fudge!

Lunch and Dinner

Since Renee and Todd are so busy, they’re looking for meals that may be a bit easier. Most people don’t have the time nor the energy to craft a different gourmet meal each night. A crockpot is a wonderful tool for making multiple, realistic meals:

Suggestion 1: Aside from duck, lamb, rib-eye steaks and pork belly, there are other cuts of meat that are fatty and work very well in a slow cooker. Get a cut of beef or pork that has nice veins of white, and plenty of gristle, like pork shoulders or beef chuck. These “cheaper” cuts tend to cook better in the slow cooker. Ketogenic eating, this is an easy is all about consuming more fat.

Marinate the meat in salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar. Keep the marinated meat in the fridge for up to 8 hours. Then heat a frying pan with a little bit of oil. Sear the meat on the stove top on all sides will the outside is golden brown. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker. Without washing out the pan, toss in diced carrots, celery and onions and saute that in the same pan until the onions start to grow soft. Then transfer the vegetables into the slow cooker. If there’s a bit of marinade juice leftover, pour that over the meat. Let the meat cook for 24- 48 hours.

Remove the meat and separate that into as many meals as you like. Freeze some if not using all within that week. Add a salad to the meal with a simple oil and vinegar dressing, or lightly sauteed vegetables.

Suggestion 2: When there’s a lot of leftover meats in the fridge, the easiest way to create a fresh dish without growing tired of the same old thing is to make a stir fry. The Chinese stir-fry method is very misunderstood. It can be made with any combination of meats and veggies and it doesn’t require soy sauce. I almost never use soy sauce when I stir-fry.

Start off by adding 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (I use olive oil) in a frying pan and let it heat up. Dice up up some onions and garlic and toss into the pan. For added flavor add a few slivers of ginger. (There’s no need to peel ginger. I only recently read on a cooking site that people peel ginger. Why?) Anyway, add these simple ingredients to the heated oil and saute. After this step, toss in any vegetables you have on hand with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Then add your leftover meat dish. Wait till the vegetables are cooked to your seared doneness. Voila! Stir fry!

Suggestion 3: A very simple salad of just leafy greens and avocados is a nice side to a fatty main dish. There’s no need for store bought dressing, with all the preservative they contain. Just a sprinkling of salt, pepper, a splash of MCT oil and balsamic vinegar.

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can also use any leftover crockpot roast meat to make a heartier salad for lunch or dinner.

With these simple methods, you can create an infinite number of keto-friendly meals. I recommend starting out gradually. Do cut out refined sugars, and processed sugar products like ice-cream and cakes. However, try a less sugary fruit like berries to satisfy those sugar cravings. (1 cup of strawberries contains about 7 grams of sugar.) Have a glass or two of red wine with dinner. Just be conscious of what you eat and wean yourself off from sugar and carbohydrates dependency.

I’ll document Todd and Renee’s progress in the coming months. So check back often to see how the ketogenic eating has been for them.

Good luck guys!

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For a few more keto-friendly dinner ideas, click on the following link:

7 thoughts on “Renee and Todd’s ketogenic adventure”

Nice bio and great recipes. I hope their diet goes well. I think meal planning and prep, leftovers and go to snacks are critical to battle those tough days that are sure to pop up from time to time. Now, if only I could get MCT oil where I live…

Hi Craig. Thanks for your feedback. You may have noriced MCT in my blog is in blue. That’s because it’s linked to its Amazon purchase page. That’s how we get ours. And it linked to the brand we use too. Hope that helps.
All my best,
Wendy